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Could you clarify what you think is happening? To my knowledge Infineon, TI and STMicro are all technically "fabless". The term "fabless" is also misleading be
by jontrossbach 4y ago
Could you clarify what you think is happening?
To my knowledge Infineon, TI and STMicro are all technically "fabless". The term "fabless" is also misleading because "Fabless" actually means Foundry-less. This is part of the problem with reporters on this topic, they actually don't know that these companies don't have foundries and endorsed a "Fabless" business model long ago.
And the idea that a fire at a single fabrication site (not a foundry) caused this long of a chip shortage is not a likely scenario. Any explanation for the ongoing microchip shortage that has to do with fabrication sites and not foundries is likely a flawed understanding.
- 11thEarlOfMar 4y agoInfineon, TI and ST all own and operate fabs all over the world. Fabless means you design chips, but you don't have your own fab (fabrication facitlity). TSMC is a foundry and and fabs chips for fabless companies like NVIDIA and Xilinx. It's explained in detail in my linked comment.
- jontrossbach 4y agoThat linked comment sounds a bit confused. Infineon, TI, and ST do not have lithography machine capacity to make all chips on their own at scale. However it is possible they do package their chips into components at their own Fabs. This Bloomberg article might help clarify your understanding. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-12/tsmc-chief-sees-end-to-chip-shortage-that-hammered-auto-industry https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-12/tsmc-chie...
- sct202 4y agoTI is most definitely not fabless; it is 80% in house. https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/analog/article/21170560/electronic-design-ti-rides-rising-chip-demand-as-it-doubles-down-on-inhouse-fabs https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/analog/article...
- jontrossbach 4y agoMaybe on a slow day. But I would wager 80 percent of those orders are not made in house when they are at high demand, which is what matters in this context. When they have a ton of orders they are most likely contracting most of them to TSMC.